Recently my good friend Emile posted photos of his new Base Unit for a 1st Addition Lionel Grand Central Terminal. I wrote to him and commented how much it added to this beautiful Lionel structure. His photos sparked an interest in my adding a Base Unit for my 1st Addition Lionel GCT. Emile was kind enough to share with me the price he paid as well as what the materials cost. Later that day, like many of you, I received an offer to purchase this same Base Unit for a significantly higher amount. I do understand business very well and have no issue with a company setting a price that they believe is fair and achievable. I also understand that there could be better options for me to obtain a Base Unit for my Lionel GCT.
My next step was to study photos of the 1 to 1 Grand Central Terminal. The more I looked at these photos, the more I liked the idea of adding a Base Unit to mine. So I called my good friend Harry Heike who has done wonderful projects for me in the past and asked him what he thought about the idea. To my surprise, he was intimately familiar with the base off the GCT and had seriously considered doing such a project in the past to the extent that he had drawn a set of plans for a model. He readily agreed to create a unique Base Unit for my GCT which will be highly detailed. And, I was very pleasantly surprised that my efforts to seek other options have paid off big time with a terrific price. This also reinforces my belief that if you have a little voice that keeps telling you to consider other options, you should listen.
Harry has told me that he would be happy to build other base units for those who own the Lionel 1st Addition GCT, and when I told him about the smaller Version 2 Lionel GCT, he was very interested in perusing this project as well. He did ask my help in finding an owner of a version 2 GCT who would be willing to ship their unit to him for study purposes so that the final product would be a perfect fit. He has agreed to pay shipping both ways and only needs the GCT for a few days. This may be an excellent opportunity for all those who have the smaller version of the GCT to have their own affordable highly detailed Base Unit. If you are interested in helping, just contact Harry or me and I will get the information on to Harry.
I am sure you are all aware that Harry Heike is a proud sponsor of both our OGR Forum and Magazine. I don’t know about you, but as far as I am concerned, when given a choice, I will go out of my way to support a Forum sponsor with my business compared to those who are not sponsors or advertisers for the OGR family of services. Obtaining a Base Unit for my GCT was another excellent opportunity to say thank you to a Forum sponsor.
Stay tuned, this should be a very interesting project. I will post progress photos as they become available.
Update December 12th:
A Forum member has come forward and is sending their Version 2 of the GCT to Harry in order that the new base unit will fit perfectly. Thanks so much to GS.
Update December 13th:
Harry tells me that he will have a prototype of the Version II GCT available for photos before Christmas. Great news!!!!!! The price will be available at that time and he also tells me you will not be disappointed with it.
